Customer Reviews

Alibi

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(13)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Joseph Kanon is the best selling author of Los Alamos and The Good German. Critics have compared his writing style to le Carre, Greene, and Orwell, but I found Kanon's prose to be more provocative and accessible.

Adam Miller is weary of his work. As a U.S. Army war crimes investigator in post war Germany, he's systematically separated the truly evil Nazis from citizens who merely closed their eyes to fanaticism gone beyond their control. When his tour of duty ends in 1946, Adam visits his widowed mother in Venice. She has returned to familiar surroundings in hopes of being happy again. Venice initially appears to be untouched by the war, but destruction takes many forms. Bombed out buildings are not always the worst aftermath of war.

At first, Adam is at loose ends. Memories of death camps leave him sleepless and disoriented. He wanders the canals and alleyways in hopes the city's beauty will provide solace or at least energize his spirit. His mother is engaged to Dr. Gianni Maglione, a betrothal he suspects is for her money. Old family friend Bertie Howard practices a forced gaiety, which Adam finds improbable. A wintry Venice with its cold rains and creeping fogs depresses Adam, until he meets Claudia Grassini. Making love in secret, seedy hideaways brings delight at first, a fleeting comfort as awful truths unravel. Wherever Adam turns, nothing is as it appears to be.

People do things to survive they wouldn't consider under normal circumstances. They bend, ignore, pretend. And no one has perfected the art of surviving better than those who live in Venice. Adam suspects Dr. Maglione may be more than a fortune hunter. He may be a Nazi sympathizer, or worse. And Claudia has her own secrets to protect. One unexpected act of violence smothers passion until remaining lovers becomes nothing more than an airtight alibi for Claudia and Adam.

Kanon's writing style is personable and seductive. His characters are real and human, fully developed. Venice becomes a living entity and the winter weather a chilling accomplice to tragedy because Joseph Kanon is a skillful wordsmith. Established fans will enthusiastically embrace Alibi. Readers not familiar with Kanon's work should be converted rapidly to devotees.

Setting this novel in Venice immediately after World War II, Joseph Kanon creates a stimulating mystery that turns the city itself into a major character. Venice, unlike other areas of Italy, has not been damaged physically by the war, and life is returning to normal. The political atmosphere, however, remains turbulent. Aristocrats, businessmen, and politicians who cooperated with the fascists and Germans are still in power. Partisans who fought the fascists and Germans regard many of these people as traitors and want justice. The Communists are making inroads into society with their promises of reform.

Into this milieu comes Grace Miller, an American widow, and her son Adam, just released from the US Army as part of a de-Nazification team in Frankfurt. Grace is about to marry Gianni Maglione, a Venetian doctor, and Adam wonders about Gianni's past. Soon Adam meets Claudia Grassini, a young Jewish woman who survived internment in Fossoli, and they begin a passionate affair. When Claudia is introduced to Gianni at a party, however, she recognizes him immediately, telling Adam that Gianni betrayed her very sick father to security forces rounding up Jews.

Using his past army connections to get further information about Gianni, Adam investigates, but violence soon changes the focus of his energies, and the nightmare involving Adam, his family, and Claudia intensifies. Adam's extreme introspection as he helps the police investigate broadens the scope and focuses attention on important themes of crime and justice, and Claudia's vulnerability as a result of the Holocaust gives added poignancy to her similar self-examinations.

With a setting so vivid that one cannot imagine the story taking place anywhere else, the reader sees Venice shining, but beneath the surface it is a decaying city, literally sinking under its own weight. War crimes, hate crimes, crimes of passion, crimes committed for altruistic reasons, and crimes committed in self-defense all play a part in the plot. Kanon also raises questions about the punishments, if any, associated with these crimes. Are some crimes less "serious," or even justifiable, if they balance the scale of justice? Is the murder of a criminal excusable? Does justice depend on who wins? Ultimately, a chase scene through the canals of Venice, leads to a stunning conclusion, filled with twists, though whether justice is truly served remains an open question. Mary Whipple

I had the immense pleasure of speaking with Mr. Kannon about this book. I found him to be one of the nicest men on the planet, and a man genuinely interested in the human spirit. Such is the backbone for Alibi, a book he purposefully executed differently from his previous works. Unlike Los Alamos and The Good German, the mystery here is not about the crime so much as the people who commit it. "You'll know who did it early on," he said. And he's right. But that's not the point. The point is how and why they did it.

As Kanon himself is apt to explain, there was a gray area that existed for a lot of Europeans in WWII. Many were forced into situations they didn't want to be in. Many played the odds and joined sides they thought would ensure their survivial. And some found themselves with a new freedom to unleash darker sides they'd been hiding, hoping in the end they'd be vindicated. No matter the case, the mystery here is but a question: during the nazi occupation of Venice, who was really at fault for helping the Germans? The answer is really up to the reader to conclude.

This is certainly the darkest of all his books. I wasn't even sure if I should be routing for the protagonist, as he is both likeable and infuriating. Of course, Kanon does this on purpose, puttting us, the reader, in the position of those Italians who sided with the Germans for whatever reason they did--we're siding with Adam because we have to, because he's the story, our own private Venice, but we're not sure we really like him or understand him. He's a good guy, with good intentions, but he's also a bad guy, acting before he thinks. He's a gray area.

The book does contain a somewhat convoluted type of story telling where the protagonist forces the plot to take turns based on lies that we, the reader, know to be false. In this respect, it can be a little harder to read than his previous works. And there are moments when the police inspector seems to be asking the wrong questions. And the dialogue, though fantastically real, can be a touch homogenized with so many staccato Italian accents. But these are mostly forgiven as we progress through a web of lies that grow thicker on every page.

The book ends with a wholly satisfactory conclusion (and a tense chase) that stuns the reader.

I highly recommend this book to anyone wishing to explore what people went through during the war. But it might be best to read any one of his other books first, as they are more conventional and easier to get through. At the end of the day this is his most ambitious book, and I believe it hits the mark--just not in the traditional way. But yes, it's a great read.

I have greatly enjoyed Joseph Kanon's earlier works, and was very much looking forward to reading his latest. The setting for the novel was very promising, but in the end the story just failed to deliver. The plot stalls out and gets repetitive for long stretches while the main characters bemoan (over and over) the mess they have made for themselves. In trying to describe why the book largely failed, all I can say is that I just was not captured by the story, and came very close to putting the book down for good several times. Unlike Kanon's other books, which left me wanting more, I was just happy to finish this book so I could pick up something else.

Not a bad book - I give it a 3 - just not a very good one either.

It's 1945, World War II is over and Adam Miller has been discharged from the army. He wasn't a regular soldier but was assigned to find out who committed Nazi war crimes and to bring those people to justice. He's hoping to leave all of that behind him by traveling from New York and staying with his mother, Grace, who now lives in Venice, Italy.

While in Venice, Adam is very much out of sorts. He can't sleep in his mother's cold house so he takes long morning walks around the place. During the night he goes to all the parties thrown by his mother's rich expatriate friends.

Adam also meets Gianni Maglione, a very successful Italian doctor, and his mother's newest flame. Gianni and Grace had known each since they were young adults but Grace eventually married Adam's father and Gianni married another women. Now Grace and Gianni are a couple since Adam's father died many years earlier and Gianni's wife has also passed away.

At one of the many social events that he frequents Adam meets Claudia Grassini a Jewish woman who survived the war by becoming the mistress of an Italian Fascist. The two immediately fall in love.

When Adam's mother and Gianni finally announce their engagement, Adam is far from thrilled but he decides to try to be happy for his mother. Adam invites Claudia to his mother's engagement party, but the moment she sees Gianni she physically attacks him. She claims the previous year, while her father was sick in the hospital, Gianni pointed him out to the Nazis thereby sending her father to the death camps. Of course Gianni denies it, but Claudia knows the incident did happened - she was there.

Adam contacts a friend of his who is still in the army assigned to search for Nazis and asks him to check to see if Gianni is truly the Nazi collaborator that Claudia claims he his. His friend sends Rosa, an Italian operative and former partisan, to help Adam discover the truth.

When Adam is involved in a very violent act he soon learns how important an alibi is and more importantly, how the right alibi helped the Venetians survive during the war.

Author Joseph Kanon weaves a very complex plot in this brilliantly written book. Filled with unforgettable characters, the story travels with the reader through the canals of Venice and the beauty of the city. The plot quickens as Adam tries to differentiate between different kinds of evil, while trying to figure out who and what to believe and exactly how he fits into all of it.

ALIBI is a love story that delves into Venetian life after the war when the inhabitants were trying to forget, or rather ignore, what they felt they had to do when the Germans occupied their city.

The book is superbly written and when you've finished the over 400 pages you come away with a sense of what Venice was going through during that painful period in its history as the citizens tried to heal themselves after the second World War. The readers also share how those years affected each of the cast of characters in the book.

Don't miss this excellent novel.

Joseph Kanon's new novel, "Alibi," is set in Venice in 1946. World War II has ended, and both expatriates and natives of Venice dress up, attend parties, and live for the pleasures of the moment. Grace Miller is an American widow who rents a lovely house in Venice. She has become reacquainted with an old friend from her youth, Dr. Gianni Maglione. She and Gianni wish to marry, but Gianni has a past, and it will come back to haunt them both.

Grace's son, Adam, a war crimes investigator for the U. S. government, is in Venice to visit his mother. He falls in love with a Jewish woman named Claudia, who has terrible memories of her traumatic wartime experiences. Adam wants to gain Claudia's trust, but she has been badly scarred in the past, and she may never be able to forget what she has endured. Meanwhile, Adam starts to investigate Gianni's activities during the war, and what he finds throws everyone's lives into turmoil.

"Alibi" is suspenseful and gripping. The descriptions of Venice are detailed and vivid, and they add immeasurably to the book's atmosphere. Kanon deals skillfully with some complex moral questions. Is it acceptable to cooperate with an evil government to save one's own life? Should people be held culpable for crimes that occurred years ago? Is it ever right to use violence to avenge past wrongs? Kanon also explores the political and social corruption that is often hidden beneath the veneer of polite society.

Kanon falters, however, towards the end of the book, when too many melodramatic events dilute the story's impact. Still, "Alibi" is a strong character study of flawed people trying to cope with unpleasant memories, guilt, and the struggle to survive at all costs. It is also an effective exploration of crime, punishment, and the terrible price of war.

I've loved Joseph Kanon's other books; he really is a good writer, and I'll buy his books again. But in this case, to paraphrase a wag's comment on a weak Broadway musical, you come out humming the scenery. The setting and era are irresistable, but the story is both murky and weak, and there was little movement for the characters. If you'll buy anything that takes place in Venice (as I will)....at least wait for the paperback.

1946 Venice is as seductive as it's always been. Untouched by the bombs of WWII, expatriates and socialites gather in parties and balls, eager to forget their inconveniences of recent years. Adam Miller, an American soldier and war crimes investigator in Germany, has just been demobilized and joins his widowed mother, Grace, in her rented palazzo. He meets his mother's fiancée, Gianni Maglione, a doctor of impeccable reputation and pedigree, or so we're led to believe. Adam takes an instant dislike to him and believes that Gianni is a gold-digger. Adam also meets a young Jewish woman, Claudia Grassini, with whom he falls in love. At a party, Claudia sees Gianni and accuses him of having her sick father transported to Auschwitz where he died. Gianni vehemently denies the accusation but Adam is not convinced of his innocence. Using his army contacts, he digs into Gianni's past, looking for evidence to prove his guilt, but before he can get to the truth, a murder is committed and an elaborate alibi is conceived.

"Alibi" is not a conventional whodunit since the reader knows who the killer(s) is. What it's supposed to do is provoke thought along the lines of: Is a murder of revenge a justifiable crime? Are crimes committed during wartime any less heinous due to the need to survive? Does cooperating with the enemy for self-preservation an inevitable choice? Where do we draw the line between murder and self-defense? These and other moral dilemmas are supposed to be the novel's focus. Unfortunately, these become buried in a sloppy plot and non-stop talking. As an historical thriller, it's very lean on the thrills and is probably the most "talkative" novel I've read. Every page is leaden with lengthy and drab dialogues--every single page (I'm not exaggerating) to the point that I really stopped caring long before it ended:

Adam: I'm sorry I'm late. Any news?
Grace: Nothing. Something terrible's happened.
Police: Signora, we don't know that.
Grace: Of course it has. What else could it be? What's awful is not to know.
Police: I've sent a man to Dr. Maglione's house. He will call if--
Grace: He comes home? He won't. Something's happened.
Adam: No word at the hospitals? Anywhere?
Police: No. So a great mystery. But, let us hope, with a simple explanation. The best thing now would be to sleep.
Grace: Sleep.

Now, imagine that level of dialogue for 400+ pages. It reads like a script for some amateur theater production for a high school audience. Claudia's "lines," being she's Italian and marginally fluent in English, are treated worse. All throughout. She is. Speaking in. Staccato.

I'm not fond of romance, but can appreciate it if done well. Adam and Claudia are supposed to be madly in love. Yet nowhere in this novel did I read anything that would convince me of such. Their relationship is devoid of the passion one would expect from two young people crazy about each other. And no, jumping into bed at the first opportunity doesn't count. Also, for a Nazi hunter, Adam comes across as a wimp. I'm not expecting some superhero, but at least someone dynamic. If I were a former SS informant, at the very least, I should be a tad nervous being around this guy. As he is, even an expat senior citizen regards him as rather foolhardy. The plot becomes confusing to the point where one no longer knows who's doing what to whom--are the Fascists still after the communists; are the communists after the partisans; are the polizia pro-Fascist, pro-partisan or both; who was really snitching to the Nazis? The only thing definite is that the expats don't care. They're too busy partying.

It's tempting to compare this with other mysteries/thrillers set in Venice. Donna Leon's Brunetti series, for example, is so very engaging and entertaining with its interesting and colorful stock characters and witty dialogues. Andrew Wilson's "The Lying Tongue" is compelling and a bona fide thriller. If you're after some good mysteries with Venice as the backdrop, these would be better choices. "Alibi," on the other hand, was a great idea marred by banal dialogues and uninteresting characters.

On about page 200, this novel is suddenly full of very, very interesting possibilities, none of which Joseph Kanon decided to explore. For the man who wrote such sublimely atmospheric books as "The Good German" and "Los Alamos," "Alibi" is a colorless dud.

The choice of location and period are intriguing--Venice immediately following WWII. Unlike so much of Italy, Venice was physically untouched by the war and so retains its beauty as if nothing had ever happened. But of course, a great deal did happen as Adam Miller discovers when he meets Claudia Grassini, a Jewish survivor of the war. Adam's widowed mother has moved to Venice where she has rekindled a relationship with Gianni Maglione, a pre-war suitor. Claudia tells Adam that Maglione is a former Nazi sympathizer, which he accepts.

How much more interesting it would have been if Adam had been wrong about Maglione! But he isn't, and between the uninteresting characters and spongy plot, "Alibi" bobs briefly before sinking into a canal.

If you haven't read Kanon's earlier period thrillers, go get them. For those of us who were looking forward to his next book, we just have to keep waiting.

"After the war, my mother took a house in Venice." Kanon's book starts with a sentence as succinct and assured as Karen Blixen's "I had a farm in Africa, at the foot of the Ngong Hills.' We're in the hands of a master storyteller, in both cases.

Kanon's book transcends the novel-of-intrigue genre with which he's been associated. It's impossible to summarize the plot of Alibi without spoiling it. But if you can imagine a Crime and Punishment in which Petrovich, the implacable investigator, is none other than Raskolnikov himself, the perpetrator of the crime - then you'll have some sense of the darkening territory into which Kanon takes us.

Remarkably, this book proceeds largely by dialogue. But what dialogue! Kanon's ear is beautifully tuned to the speech of smart people, talk charged with feeling and intelligence. Adam Miller's discovery of the limits of his moral intuition is a chilling trip down a narrowing tunnel. But the reader's pleasure in the conversational exchanges, and in the subtle swerves in Adam's perception of reality, makes the novel glitter through the darkness.

Looming behind everything is that other ambiguous character, Venice itself, "La Serenissima", her eternal and corrupt beauty luminously evoked by Kanon.

There's a boat chase, in the end. But that's not what makes this book a thriller.